(NaturalNews) There are parts of the world less free than others, but apparently, these days, the tyranny in the United Kingdom can begin before you're even born.

Incredibly, according to British reports, government social workers have forcibly removed a baby from its mother, all on the orders of a court.

As reported by the Daily Telegraph:

Essex social services obtained a High Court order against the woman that allowed her to be forcibly sedated and her child to be taken from her womb.

The council said it was acting in the best interests of the woman, an Italian who was in Britain on a work trip, because she had suffered a mental breakdown.

'Unprecedented'

Have British health authorities never heard of the mood swings and other mental changes that pregnant women sometimes undergo? And did she really suffer a "mental breakdown"?

The little baby girl, who is now 15 months old, is still being cared for by British taxpayers. What's more, the social services department has refused to hand the little girl back to her mother, who, according to her lawyers, has made a full recovery.

Now, the case has turned into an international legal problem. The mother's lawyers have, understandably, described what has happened to their client as "unprecedented," which is to say the least.

The lawyers also claim that, even if the council had once acted in their client's best interests, British officials should have consulted with her family beforehand and gotten Italian social services involved, because they would be in a better position to care for the child.

"I have never heard of anything like this in all my 40 years in the job," said Brendan Fleming, the mother's British lawyer.

"I can understand if someone is very ill that they may not be able to consent to a medical procedure, but a forced caesarean is unprecedented," he told the paper. "If there were concerns about the care of this child by an Italian mother, then the better plan would have been for the authorities here to have notified social services in Italy and for the child to have been taken back there."

The case raises new questions about Britain's laws, which obviously give too much power and authority to the country's social services officials.

The Telegraph reported that the case would be raised in the British Parliament soon by John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP who is chairman of the Public Family Law Reform Coordinating Campaign, an organization seeking reform and greater openness in court proceedings involving family matters.

"I have seen a number of cases of abuses of people's rights in the family courts, but this has to be one of the more extreme," he told the paper.

"It involves the Court of Protection authorizing a caesarean section without the person concerned being made aware of what was proposed," Hemming continued. "I worry about the way these decisions about a person's mental capacity are being taken without any apparent concern as to the effect on the individual being affected."

Taken away and then denied her daughter

The mother, who was not identified for legal reasons, is an Italian national who had traveled to Britain last year to attend a training course with an airline at Stansted Airport in Essex.

While there, she reportedly suffered a panic attack, which her family later said was likely due to her failure to take medication for an existing bipolar condition.

She called police, who apparently became concerned about her and transported her not to a regular hospital but instead to a mental facility, which she realized only after the fact. She told her lawyers that, when she tried to return to her hotel later, she was restrained and then given a C-section under provisions in the Mental Health Act.

"The woman, who says she was kept in the dark about the proceedings, says that after five weeks in the ward she was forcibly sedated. When she woke up she was told that the child had been delivered by C-section and taken into care," the paper reported.